The hitman hearne is coming for the government.
I presume hell be discredited in some way soon.
Think someone posted that already. Great article and there’s no reason, bar vested interests, that his proposals couldn’t be introduced tomorrow.
That’s a follow on article to the original one posted I think.
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Apologies.
the petition linked to that report has the following demands:
- Scrap investor tax breaks - scrap REIT tax
- Impose investor tax of 50% on profits
- Restrict sale of new developments to individual home buyers & not for profits
- Build public & affordable homes on huge state lands
- Right to housing in our Constitution
- Remove land lords ability to evict tenants for sale & no fault evictions
I’m not convinced by them at all. To be honest, they are spurious slogans rather than specific workable items. Maybe a more in depth list of proposals or solutions, but just simply throwing out buzzwords and populist phrases is not taking a real look at what will help solve the process. Removing developers entirely also will not work in this country, and its a dangerous route to go down to be relying solely on government to provide all housing is not a good idea. It shouldnt be 100% developer either, which it isnt, but considering the role developers have done in providing housing stock, pushing them out of the market wont help matters at all.
I’m not disagreeing that something should be done, but rather then the usual shouty catch phrases, put forward meaningful practical solutions that will properly help the situation.
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That’s Rory Hearne of Socialist Workers Party or similar isn’t it i.e hard left politics. Not to say that he doesn’t have a relevant point of view or be given a platform but when he’s clearly coming from a political activist background it should say it on the report what that is and not just present him as some sort of neutral academic expert imho.
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He’s a lecturer in social policy and has published an article containing policy proposals. How is it helpful to brand him “hard left”? Why can’t people read and engage with the content for what it is?
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Looking at the Children’s Hospital debacle you couldn’t trust FFG to make best use of public spending for housing. Stopping all investment is not the solution although they should be going to town on profits earned by foreign investment funds. Are Irish developers afforded the same tax avoidance ability?
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in a rare admission on TFK, I dont know what way profits are on Irish developers opposed to foreign investment funds.
I also dont disagree on the public spending on housing. The way public works are for most building companies are a pain in the bollix. It has to be done through the e-tendering process where its an EU wide admissible tender and its a complete race to the bottom. For smaller type developments, its just not worthwhile for builders to even bother their hole going for them. Plus the time it takes to go from concept to completion is ridiculously long due to over complicating procedures and paperwork. Efficiency is far from the forefront in the local councils doing these. and more often than not, the council staff to run these are woefully understaffed as their primary focus is more on renovation and improvement projects rather than new developments.
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I haven’t made any comment on the content. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that the background of those making comment should be disclosed when it’s clearly relevant. Readers can then decide whether they wish to it weight on that or not.
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I’m interested in this thought. Where does it begin and end?
You said that he should be labelled “hard left”. How is that helpful to debate or to engagement with the issues discussed in his article?
If you think that’s reasonable surely every mention of FG in relation housing should describe them as “proponents of extreme neoliberal policies in relation to housing for the last decade”?
I think your suggestion is extremely unhelpful. You know well the effect of that kind of labelling would have. Would labelling the writer “hard left” help or hinder debate of the issues in the article? Are the ideas presented even “hard” left? I wouldn’t say so, no. They’re broadly left wing but they’re not even radical proposals.
Hearne was involved in a landmark complaint against Ireland on housing under the European social charter where a decision on against Ireland was issued. Does that make the Council of Europe hard left? According to your logic it must be because its decision aligned with the views of someone who was associated with the socialist party. Come on.
I can’t really get my head around how you think it would be helpful at all.
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a bit like the minister for housing being upfront about having invested in cuckoo funds
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I think the content should be able to stand up for itself without needing to know the background of the writer. If the content is logical and substantiated, then it shouldnt matter who he is. There are plenty of commentators or journalists who I think are complete arseholes, but if they write something good, who they are or from what background shouldnt make a difference to their piece. I know nothing of this guy at all, but I found both his articles ok. Some of it was accurate and reasonable, other was just populist common denominator blame the government shite.
He is right that government policy of the late 90s and early 00s drove the housing market as an investment opportunity rather than a home to live in issue. However he is entirely wrong in saying that government policy since 2013 is the reason for the price of housing going up.
He is also decrying the purchasing of housing by investment fund agencies etc and that houses should be only bought by first time buyers, but then you are leaving out a huge market of people who do not want or need to buy a house. Many people live in cities because of work and prefer to rent. There is still a need for a rental market and driving housing to purchase only for first time buyers is not a conducive way to ease rental issues.
It’s like calling all Palestinian sympathisers militant Provos - everyone has to be put in a pre determined bucket
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That was my use of hard left. I’m sorry it upset you. I don’t suggest that he be labelled as such at the bottom of an article - just some reference to his political alignment/past.
I think if an academic, who was a former FG politician, was writing on something like housing then he/she should be referenced as so too.
I’m not sure why you’re so worked up about it. Surely it’s a more transparent way of doing things?
I think that’s a good example. Other good examples which are frequently referenced are politicians being landlords etc. That might be uncomfortable for them and they’ll argue it doesn’t influence their decisions but I think it is right that it is made public.
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I think if you present pertinent information as to the writer then the reader can decide whether that influences their assessment of the argument.
Regularly opinion pieces are written in papers by lobbyists making cogent arguments for a particular policy.The arguments may be sound (or not) but I still think its appropriate that it be referenced what background they’re coming from/biases they bring to the argument
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they should also have to list their liabilities, especially after the anglo/INBS fiasco. there’s no way that some TDs werent in hock to those entities
Yeah, I think that’s fair enough, or certainly if they are above a certain threshold.
I’d agree with your point above about landlords more so than that. A particular leaning or stance is not as big an issue as advocating for something which someone has a vested interest in.
Much like Kevs persil survey saying kids should get mucky.